I loved this movie for what it was: a campy, action flick with awesome one-liners, and a host of (now aged) action stars. Don't go into this expecting ANYTHING but what it is, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Addendum: I don't get the critical slaughter of this series... This is a tongue-in-cheek, self-refferential action film. THEY REFERENCE RAMBO DIRECTLY for fuck's sake!!! This was not TRYING to be a critical success. It doesn't take itsself seriously. I just don't undestand the mentality behing listening to a critic with a movie like The Expendables.

wanted to watch it but for some reason the movie has been postponed here in hong kong. it should have come out last week but suddenly it was gone. even the date has been covered from the posters in the cinemas. they told me it might come out in december.

well, i dint mind the first one. it was an ok action movie. dint expect much anyway but still a good watch. from the looks of it, it will be the same for this movie.

I watched the general's daughter once as a child/ pre teen and while I only saw a small part of the movie toward the end it has always stood out in my mind because watching that movie was both where I first heard the word rape and learned what It meant.

I remember last year (or was it two years ago?) when The Expendables got the most comments EVER on an Escape to the Movies video, and everyone was super pissed, so much so that they kept complaining about all of his other reviews after that. Now... I think people have either mellowed out or completely forgot about it. It's like they only live in the moment and don't have any kind of foresight or hindsight about them. I actually never bothered to see The Expendables, so I'm not going to bother here. Really, in both cases, the only interesting thing about them is seeing all these action stars in one movie, not because of the actual movie itself... Oh well.

I often hear people lamenting with these movies about how they could have possibly gone wrong. That doesn't make any sense to me. The question I would sooner ask is how would it even be possible for them to go right?

I guess people are blinded by their nostalgia of those old movies to see just what a bad and impossible idea these movies are.

Also, Crimson Tide is indeed awesome. I mean, all those films are great but Crimson Tide features Aragorn before he was Aragorn, Denzel stoic as always (except the two roles he actually won Oscars for) and Gene Hackman at his gravelly-screamy-peak. It's like Hunt for Red October with actual political tension.

This movie was so bad that it made Total Recall fun to watch when I bought a cheap night ticket a few days later, just like the way that the Expendables make Scott Pilgrim look like the greatest movie ever after I saw both opening night a couple of years ago.

So..... The Expendables..... making other action films look better since 2010!

AnarchistAbe:I just don't undestand the mentality behing listening to a critic with a movie like The Expendables.

Well, personally I always enjoy critical reviews of shitty movies, just for entertainment value. The last Pirates of the Caribbean, Priest, and now this are shining examples of this.

Otherwise I can really see your point: all that a critic can tell you is that it's shite - which was completely obvious from the get-go. Whether you enjoy it is completely personal, and no critic is going to help with that.

I can definitely agree on this wanting to be the movie you WANT to like...but if they just couldn't be arsed to actually TRY and make it likable, no wonder it's a dud.

Could've been worse though. All the well known stars of OTHER movie genres could've tried to do the same thing within their own genres. Unfortuntely, I don't think having an A-listing of comedy stars is going make a great comedy movie because The Aristocrats documentary already did that...and did it awesomely.

I was hoping he would just ignore this movie and review Premium Rush, which actually came out today. A movie where a review might shape the possibility of me seeing it.

I like the idea of a movie about a bike messenger running for his life, but I'm worried they did a shit job. I might go anyway, just because I want to vote with my money that cycling movies can be made.

MB202:I remember last year (or was it two years ago?) when The Expendables got the most comments EVER on an Escape to the Movies video, and everyone was super pissed, so much so that they kept complaining about all of his other reviews after that. Now... I think people have either mellowed out or completely forgot about it. It's like they only live in the moment and don't have any kind of foresight or hindsight about them. I actually never bothered to see The Expendables, so I'm not going to bother here. Really, in both cases, the only interesting thing about them is seeing all these action stars in one movie, not because of the actual movie itself... Oh well.

The reason it was so commented on was because of who insulting Bob was in it, calling anyone who saw it a sheep or a idiotic piece of macho meat, and saying how much he lost faith in humanity just because something that had never really had a chance of being much more the a cult classic not being number one on the chart, pretty much saying you don't have the same taste as therefore you are an idiot. He did this review a lot better and if he had the the review for the first one like this he probably wouldn't have gotten called out

I have no plan to see this movie myself I never cared much for nostalgia movies of any kind.

Yes, it is too much to expect that people put effort into a film like this. The first one was marketed to the lucrative built-in audience the premise attracts, people who assume a movie that stars all of their favorite old action-movie heroes can't possibly be bad. Putting effort into the movie wasn't necessary, because once that audience has paid for their tickets, they could be forced to sit through two hours of white noise and flashing lights for all the studio cares.

Then again, the fact that they made a sequel suggests that those people actually did like it. Or at least that the studio thought they did. So, I dunno.

A lot of people raising this "Just take it for what it is" argument, seem to be solely playing lip service to the contents of the film, and not the actual execution. Content is easy, if you have the budget. We want this thing to be in the film, put that thing in front of the camer and roll. You have to acknowledge, at some point, the craftsmanship involved in presenting the content in an engaging way. I haven't seen either Expendables films, so I can't say how effectively they go about these aspects, I just feel the need to acknowledge that a lof of people seem to be trying to judge of a piece of entertainment with a checklist rather that basing it on actual merit.

Washed-Up 80s Hacks: The Movie: The Sequel. The stars in this movie are not missed (though I roll my eyes at how legitimate talent like Jet Li and Jason Statham keep showing up in dreck like this) and it's pitiful how they keep trying to extend their shelf life that hit its expiration date about twenty years ago. We were definitely better off once we got back to teaching actors how to fight instead of pretending lunk heads could act. I am glad that no one besides Sly is really trying to bring back the worst excesses of the 80s so it makes it come off as sad instead of annoying.

Scrustle:I often hear people lamenting with these movies about how they could have possibly gone wrong. That doesn't make any sense to me. The question I would sooner ask is how would it even be possible for them to go right?

I guess people are blinded by their nostalgia of those old movies to see just what a bad and impossible idea these movies are.

As a nineties kid, I can't even pretend to get this. But it seems Bob loved the thing this series is supposed to be an homage to.

I don't think he's ever really explained why they rub him the wrong way. He just says it's mediocre in several ways. I'd like him to break it down a little. I don't care about this movie at all, but I think people would be less upset if he took the time to deconstruct this one. The shortness of the episode kinda tells me he didn't really mentally give it a chance.

I mean...I agree with him. And you. But ya know, I feel like Bob just keeps setting himself up with this. He certainly triggered a lot of bile last year when he talked about the first one....hope this isn't an encore.

Wait wait wait...so you're saying despite all the hype and build up that Chuck Norris is in this movie, he's only there very briefly and doesn't really do anything other than basically have the film reference the fact that he's Chuck Norris?

AnarchistAbe:I just don't undestand the mentality behing listening to a critic with a movie like The Expendables.

Otherwise I can really see your point: all that a critic can tell you is that it's shite - which was completely obvious from the get-go. Whether you enjoy it is completely personal, and no critic is going to help with that.

These movies do have a strange kind of armour against negative criticism. Perhaps the bar is purposely set so low by 80s action junk, it couldn't possibly fail. Speaking for myself, I loved every bit of it.